News In Brief

Conn., Pa. Governors Renew Push for Vouchers

Gov. John G. Rowland has appointed a 16-member task force to design
a school-choice plan for Connecticut that would include public and
private schools.

Meanwhile, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge will make a second effort to
enact legislation providing private school tuition vouchers, but will
scale back his proposal from a statewide initiative to a demonstration
program.

Gov. Rowland, a Republican and a longtime advocate of vouchers, is
also making his second attempt to win support for the concept. A bill
that would have given poor families state money to send their children
to the schools of their choice failed in the legislature last year.

The Connecticut governor named officials from public, private, and
independent schools to the task force, which is expected to make its
recommendations for a choice system within three months. State Reps.
Paul Knierim, a Republican, and Reginald Beamon, a Democrat, are
co-chairmen of the panel.

In Pennsylvania, Mr. Ridge last week announced a new education plan
that seeks state-funded tuition grants of up to $1,500 for students
from low-income families in poorer areas of the state such as
Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Altoona, and Erie.

Parents could use the grants to pay tuition at any private school or
at an out-of-district public school.

The Republican governor's new plan also would repeal school mandates
and create charter schools, provisions that were included in his
earlier plan, which died in the legislature last summer.

House Democrats have introduced an alternative education-reform
package that includes charter school legislation and a bill to finance
tuition vouchers for parents who choose to send their children to
public schools outside their home districts.

Abolish Tenure?

Virginia's state schools superintendent, William C. Bosher, has
proposed abolishing tenure for the state's public school teachers and
instead offering them three- to five-year contracts, with renewal
dependent on student achievement.

Mr. Bosher, who issued his proposal to the state board of education
last month, said short-term contracts would provide a tool to motivate
"marginal teachers."

"If we create an assumption that performance as teachers is based on
the achievement of young people, it'll cause the adrenalin to flow," he
said.

But Robley S. Jones, the president of the Virginia Education
Association, said the proposal makes teachers scapegoats for
educational failures they often cannot control, and would leave them
vulnerable to arbitrary dismissal.

Under current Virginia law, new teachers work under probation for
the first three years of their employment. Following a satisfactory
evaluation, they are retained each year unless there is sufficient
cause to discharge them.

Mr. Bosher said he expects the state board to decide by next month
whether to support legislation to change the teacher-tenure system.

Taxing Problem

The Kansas legislature may meet this month in its first special
session in eight years in order to forestall a possible delay in
collecting property-tax revenue for schools.

A September ruling by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban
Development held that federal law requires lenders that handle
home-mortgage loans backed by HUD to make property-tax payments twice a
year, instead of annually, as is now the usual practice in Kansas.

That means school districts will collect only half the property
taxes owed by homeowners who have such loans in late December, and will
have to wait for the balance until next June. Currently, Kansas
collects all the tax money in December and distributes it in
January.

The legislature could solve the schools' problem by imposing a
penalty on taxpayers who pay their property taxes in installments.

In states that impose such penalties, the federal rules allow annual
payments.

Vol. 15, Issue 11

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